Random House: Game On!

by: Ian Crouch

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Random House, among other digital initiatives, has established a video-game division that will partner with outside software developers to create original games. First up is “Elemental: War of Magic,” a “fantasy strategy game set on a world filled with magic and ancient lore” produced in partnership with Stardock Corp. The game is due in September, and will be preceded in August by the book “Elemental: Destiny’s Embers,” written by Brad Wardell, the game’s creator.

A publishing house’s direct entry into the gaming market seems like a natural fit. Though I’ve long complained that my generation has failed some enormous life test by not leaving behind its video games in childhood, that’s always been the nervous argument of a crank. Instead of squeezing out other art forms (like books) video games might simply be another venue for telling stories. And their wide audience and increasing complexity are good things for the people who tell those stories. At least that’s what Junot Diaz’s thrilling, slightly mad review of “Grand Theft Auto IV,” from 2008, forced me to consider. Díaz was writing in response to claims that the latest iteration of the shoot-’em-up game was the first Great American Video Game, that it was great art on the level of “The Godfather,” or E. L. Doctorow’s “Ragtime.” Not so, he writes:

"Successful art tears away the veil and allows you to see the world with lapidary clarity; successful art pulls you apart and puts you back together again, often against your will, and in the process reminds you in a visceral way of your limitations, your vulnerabilities, makes you in effect more human. Does GTA IV do that? Not for me it doesn’t, and heck, I love this damn game."

But Díaz is certain that video games can be great art, that amid “shooting digital cops, creating traffic jams, and robbing ATM users,” gamers can be exposed to transformative stories.

"But just because GTA didn’t rise to the occasion doesn’t mean that there ain’t a videogame company out there in the middle of writing the game that will do all these things. Like they said in the voice-over of the original “The Six Million Dollar Man”: We have the technology. We have the technology, the narrative sophistication and an audience willing to take any number of wild illuminating rides as long as they’re couched in the grammar of spectacular addictive gameplay."

It’s unclear whether this new division at Random House is interested in creating great art, or rather just trying to inject some cash into the mother ship during hard times. Some have noted, for instance, that Random House’s Del Rey imprint has a stable of science-fiction and fantasy writers that could elevate the narratives of games within those genres. For now, the publisher should hand out copies of its own title, “The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design,” to its staff. What if they turned that one into a game? Meta.

from: The New Yorker